"Marvel NOW!" Magazine to Preview New Series Post-"Civil War II"

[leo619]

DC tried, they had the Midnighter series and Constantine: The Hellblaer, they have the (probably soon to end) Doctor Fate, we had Omega Men which put an emphasis on Kyle Rayner's Hispanic background, etc. DC tried and it sold like crap despite having some really great books that reviewed well(Midnighter and Omega Men specifically). I find it hard to go down so harshly on them for going back to what people clearly want from them (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.).

LOL, that's their attempt at trying? If that's the case than yeah of course they're doomed to failure. The only thing they have done is placed these heroes as solo's, throwing them at the wall, and hoping that they stick. Outside of their solo's, what was done with them to either build up these characters, give them a major role in events, or advertisement? I'll answer, little to none. The wildstorm characters got brief appearances in Future End, Doctor Fate was regularly getting wrecked by Evil Superman in Earth 2, etc etc

Compare that to Black Panther, who was given a huge role under Hickman's pen, became such a huge hit in the movies that they sparked a twitter trend called #blackpanthersolit, and brought in an award winning writer to write Black Panther.

Or Miles Morales, whose regularly written by Marvel top 3 most popular writer Bendis, was given a appearance in Secret Wars, and became THE spider man of the marvel universe. He's not only on numerous teams and guest stars, his sales has literally doubled since when he was in the Ultimate Universe.

There's a literal night and day difference in effort between Marvel and DC when it comes to their minority characters. There's a reason why many black readers have essentially gave up on DC.

[leo619]

Adding diversity is great but changing characters that have had existing fan bases and expecting things to grow is not smart business. You can be eliminating more readers than you create. For instance, I would love to be pulling the new Black Panther comic, I love the character and it has great reviews. However eliminating Bruce Banner as the Hulk just didn't cost them $4 dollars a month but over $150. I have since put that into model railroading and kayaking both of which my kids love. So in essence, they eliminated me but also four children that will be exposed to other hobbies instead of comics.

Completely disagree. Thor is selling among the most sales it has had in a long time, I have already discussed about Miles Morales. By having new characters taking up the mantle of characters from the old days, you're essentially bringing in new blood whose interested in reading about new characters, but more importantly reading about characters that looks like them. You have Ms. Kamala whose literally a symbol for justice in real life in San Fransisco.

That same reasoning was given to Star Wars the force awakening and so many people said it was going to fail, only for it to be one of the most successful movies of all time.
So no worries, you can place your 150 dollars to things that you now enjoy. There's going to be plenty of people who love the changes such as myself who will enjoy these books as well.

[leo619]

I think Marvel understand their own business model better than anyone on this forum ever will, myself included. If Tom Brevoort was responding he would probably say, "that's funny, I was was thinking something similar when I fell over that big pile of cash in the office".

LOL! Pretty much. You have characters before who were brand new whose regularly in the top 20 sales. I mean just look at the top 30 sold series from last month. Look at how many are new characters in comparison to how it use to be.

Comic-book Title Issue Price Publisher Est. sales
1 Black Panther 1 $4.99 Marvel 253,259
2 Star Wars Poe Dameron 1 $4.99 Marvel 175,322
3 Dark Knight III Master Race 4 $5.99 DC 143,055
4 Star Wars Special C-3PO 1 $4.99 Marvel 120,841
5 Batman 51 $3.99 DC 101,922
6 Gwenpool 1 $4.99 Marvel 100,852
7 Star Wars 18 $3.99 Marvel 98,880
8 Darth Vader 19 $3.99 Marvel 76,965
9 Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad April Fools Special 1 $4.99 DC 75,354
10 Amazing Spider-Man 10 $3.99 Marvel 73,643
11 Justice League 49 $3.99 DC 71,131
12 Amazing Spider-Man 11 $3.99 Marvel 67,446
13 Walking Dead 153 $2.99 Image 67,358
14 Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 5 $3.99 DC 65,616
15 Spider-Man Deadpool 4 $3.99 Marvel 64,931
16 Deadpool 10 $3.99 Marvel 64,509
17 Moon Knight 1 $4.99 Marvel 60,938
18 Spider-Gwen 7 $3.99 Marvel 60,900
19 Justice League Darkseid War Special 1 $3.99 DC 60,808
20 Spider-Man 3 $3.99 Marvel 59,789
21 Old Man Logan 4 $3.99 Marvel 59,174
22 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 2 $3.99 Boom 58,976
23 Old Man Logan 5 $3.99 Marvel 58,870
24 Deadpool 9 $3.99 Marvel 57,798
25 Uncanny X-Men 6 $4.99 Marvel 57,434
26 Empress 1 $3.99 Marvel 55,829
27 Harley Quinn 27 $3.99 DC 54,864
28 Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harleys 1 $3.99 DC 52,659
29 Mighty Thor 6 $3.99 Marvel 52,538
30 All New All Different Avengers 8 $3.99 Marvel 51,92

Mighty Thor, Spider Man (Miles Morales), Gwenpool and SpiderGwen, and once again Black Panther being the first black hero to be number one on sales in Marvel History. Let's repeat that, in the entire publication of Marvel's history, it took to 2016 for Marvel to finally have a black solo book be number 1 in sales.

These are historic occasions going on, and DC, instead of reflecting that Marvel's creating a revolution on their side and kicking butt doing it, decides I'm going to go back to the 60's to pick up the old fans needs to have their characters the same since childhood, are only aiding in killing this industry.

[Anabyss]

So the seasonal thing is really happening? I've never really cared about the relaunches so long as my favorite characters are still on the forefront

You get mad respect from me, word is bond

[Uggha]

LOL! Pretty much. You have characters before who were brand new whose regularly in the top 20 sales. I mean just look at the top 30 sold series from last month. Look at how many are new characters in comparison to how it use to be.



Mighty Thor, Spider Man (Miles Morales), Gwenpool and SpiderGwen, and once again Black Panther being the first black hero to be number one on sales in Marvel History. Let's repeat that, in the entire publication of Marvel's history, it took to 2016 for Marvel to finally have a black solo book be number 1 in sales.

These are historic occasions going on, and DC, instead of reflecting that Marvel's creating a revolution on their side and kicking butt doing it, decides I'm going to go back to the 60's to pick up the old fans needs to have their characters the same since childhood, are only aiding in killing this industry.

That's great and I am glad Black Panther is #1! But that isn't the whole story. I love the character and would be buying the comic except right now but for the fact Marvel eliminated me as a customer. I wouldn't be buying Black Panther just because it's a #1 issue or because of the recent movie. He is a great character and I was a collector and a long time fan of the entire Universe but a couple of characters and mostly Banner is what pulled me in. Since I was eleven I have collected all things Hulk. I was lucky, my Dad was a Batman fanatic and had me around comics since I really got into reading. Comic sales YoY even at Marvel are down around 20% and I think it is just the beginning. I am 44 and have four kids between 7 and 13. We have worked hard and finally progressed to a point in life and our careers where even with the expense of kids, mortgage, etc. we are able to save and still have disposable income. I feel like I have a lot to offer Marvel monetarily along with exposing 4 potential future customers. I have to believe there are quite a few cuustomers at my particular place in life with kids and if they want to blow us off with their new business model it certainly is their right. I suspect they aren't going to grow anything, rather just preside over slicing up a shrinking pie.

Maybe they make some changes and bring some people back but they risk alienating comic buyers long term. I can tell you model railroading and kayaking aren't cheap and I've put a lot a money into both and wouldn't quickly abandon them now. It's be fun for us and the kids. In a little over a month, we will be camping and kayaking the San Juan islands for ten days and I don't feel like I am missing out or the kids either. In fact, we likely wouldn't be doing it if I hadn't picked it up as a result of Marvel decisions. Maybe they know what they are doing but I work in an industry that lives off both repeat customers and new customers. The long term customers provide a disproportionate and larger part of our revenue and generally we work had to keep them through loyalty programs and responding to their wants and concerns. Their is always marketing and new promotions going on to attract new customers but never at the expense of our long term and highest revenue customers. I have to believe a lot of that is universal and why YoY sales are down. That includes the introduction of Star Wars into their line which isn't part of the core super hero medium.

[Anabyss]

LOL, that's their attempt at trying? If that's the case than yeah of course they're doomed to failure. The only thing they have done is placed these heroes as solo's, throwing them at the wall, and hoping that they stick. Outside of their solo's, what was done with them to either build up these characters, give them a major role in events, or advertisement? I'll answer, little to none. The wildstorm characters got brief appearances in Future End, Doctor Fate was regularly getting wrecked by Evil Superman in Earth 2, etc etc

Compare that to Black Panther, who was given a huge role under Hickman's pen, became such a huge hit in the movies that they sparked a twitter trend called #blackpanthersolit, and brought in an award winning writer to write Black Panther.

Or Miles Morales, whose regularly written by Marvel top 3 most popular writer Bendis, was given a appearance in Secret Wars, and became THE spider man of the marvel universe. He's not only on numerous teams and guest stars, his sales has literally doubled since when he was in the Ultimate Universe.

There's a literal night and day difference in effort between Marvel and DC when it comes to their minority characters. There's a reason why many black readers have essentially gave up on DC.

Preach my brother preach!

[leo619]

That's great and I am glad Black Panther is #1! But that isn't the whole story. I love the character and would be buying the comic except right now but for the fact Marvel eliminated me as a customer. I wouldn't be buying Black Panther just because it's a #1 issue or because of the recent movie. He is a great character and I was a collector and a long time fan of the entire Universe but a couple of characters and mostly Banner is what pulled me in. Since I was eleven I have collected all things Hulk. I was lucky, my Dad was a Batman fanatic and had me around comics since I really got into reading. Comic sales YoY even at Marvel are down around 20% and I think it is just the beginning. I am 44 and have four kids between 7 and 13. We have worked hard and finally progressed to a point in life and our careers where even with the expense of kids, mortgage, etc. we are able to save and still have disposable income. I feel like I have a lot to offer Marvel monetarily along with exposing 4 potential future customers. I have to believe there are quite a few cuustomers at my particular place in life with kids and if they want to blow us off with their new business model it certainly is their right. I suspect they aren't going to grow anything, rather just preside over slicing up a shrinking pie.

Maybe they make some changes and bring some people back but they risk alienating comic buyers long term. I can tell you model railroading and kayaking aren't cheap and I've put a lot a money into both and wouldn't quickly abandon them now. It's be fun for us and the kids. In a little over a month, we will be camping and kayaking the San Juan islands for ten days and I don't feel like I am missing out or the kids either. In fact, we likely wouldn't be doing it if I hadn't picked it up as a result of Marvel decisions. Maybe they know what they are doing but I work in an industry that lives off both repeat customers and new customers. The long term customers provide a disproportionate and larger part of our revenue and generally we work had to keep them through loyalty programs and responding to their wants and concerns. Their is always marketing and new promotions going on to attract new customers but never at the expense of our long term and highest revenue customers. I have to believe a lot of that is universal and why YoY sales are down. That includes the introduction of Star Wars into their line which isn't part of the core super hero medium.

Actually the YoY drop is explained due to last 2015 being the biggest April month sale in modern times, plus it was a 5 week sale instead of 4. The biggest culprit of course of the mid tier companies releasing much less books. More information can be found below.

As John Jackson Miller explained, April 2015 was the biggest month of modern times, and a five week month to boot, so comparisons were bound to be bleak, but even so sales in 2016 were down. And the culprit was a drop in product of middle tier publishers including IDW, Image, Boom and Dynamite all releasing fewer books.

That is a steep drop: 23% fewer new comic books were released in April 2016 versus the year before. That figure is higher than the actual 18% drop in new comics dollar sales year-over-year, and much higher than we would expect from the usual four-to-five-week month difference. (The number of graphic novel releases was about the same.) Put another way, publishers released 30% more new comic books in April 2015 than in the following April.

You might think that the addition of a fifth week would result in an increase of 25% in new material — and a decrease of 20% when that fifth week is gone — but the numbers are usually much lower. Comics are monthlies, not every-four-weeks; publishers don’t always increase their slates just to accommodate the extra week. Offerings tend to spread out a little more. This drop in the number of comics offered is significantly higher, and points to reduced offerings by publisher design.

What’s the source of the drop? The middle-tier publishers, whose increased offerings in recent years helped bulk up the market. IDW is the biggest source of the drop, offering 43 periodicals this April versus 63 last April. Image is down from 74 to 56 titles, Dynamite 35 to 19, Boom down from 39 to 27. The middle-tier publishers are playing it more conservatively in 2016, and one result is lower overall volume.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/black-pant...slip-in-april/

Even more, Marvel is dominating like rarely before from April

In April 2016, Marvel accounted for 52.60% of the total unit sales in the top 300 comics. DC accounted for 27.24%, Image had 7.51% and IDW had 3.16%. Essentially, DC had roughly half the sales of Marvel, Image roughly a quarter the sales of DC and IDW about half the sales of Image. This sort of breakdown of the large publishers isn't unusual. Ideally, DC would be stronger competition for Marvel and maybe that will be the case with Rebirth like it was at the beginning of the New 52.

If you look at April 2015, it was DC that held most of the top 20, with Convergence dominating the charts. Now it's Marvel with a near clean sweep.


It would be nice if old school and new fans could coexist within the comic book industry, but I just don't see it happening. You see before Marvel's main switch in things, Minority characters were constantly playing second fiddle. They weren't getting any traction in selling (akin to what DC is going through now) and they were very rigid in their purchasing choices. Marvel has made small pushes before but most were just push to the waste side because everyone wanted their rogers, man thor, bruce banner and etc. They weren't willing to give anything else a chance.

So Marvel wipe the slate clean with ANAD, and in it's wake came so many minority lead books and teams it's like nothing marvel ever done before. And now they're reaping the rewards.

If Anything, this should prove something to other companies. Marvel's making advancement towards modern society, and is doing fantastic because of it.

[VJ.]

Calm down guys. I really think it's just a bunch of new titles, more cancellations and relaunch of some titles who didn't sold enough on ANAD. The other ones will probably continue without other relaunch.

Don't you come in here being all sensible & level headed. You're a comicbook fan, so start panicking and hating any change ever

I'm excited, it will give me a good jumping off point to drop most of my marvel comics. I'll still stick with Iron Man, Moon Knight, and Wolverine if Laura is still around, but otherwise i've had enough of the constant #1s, crossovers, giant events, and tie ins. We need less CW2/Standoff/whatever and more books like Vision.

You say that, but look at the Sales - events/crossovers/tie-ins and #1s sell, so that's what they give us. If all your favorite regular books sold half as well as event comics, then we probably would have fewer events, rebranding etc.

[Panfoot]

You say that, but look at the Sales - events/crossovers/tie-ins and #1s sell, so that's what they give us. If all your favorite regular books sold half as well as event comics, then we probably would have fewer events, rebranding etc.

I know, I'd still rather take an amazing 6-12 issue series (Warren Ellis's run on Moon Knight, Tom King's current Vision book), rather then these runs that end up being a third/half tie in to an event(that is usually bad) and then relaunched with another first issue that is again an introduction to the character.

[Panfoot]

LOL, that's their attempt at trying? If that's the case than yeah of course they're doomed to failure. The only thing they have done is placed these heroes as solo's, throwing them at the wall, and hoping that they stick. Outside of their solo's, what was done with them to either build up these characters, give them a major role in events, or advertisement? I'll answer, little to none. The wildstorm characters got brief appearances in Future End, Doctor Fate was regularly getting wrecked by Evil Superman in Earth 2, etc etc

Compare that to Black Panther, who was given a huge role under Hickman's pen, became such a huge hit in the movies that they sparked a twitter trend called #blackpanthersolit, and brought in an award winning writer to write Black Panther.

Or Miles Morales, whose regularly written by Marvel top 3 most popular writer Bendis, was given a appearance in Secret Wars, and became THE spider man of the marvel universe. He's not only on numerous teams and guest stars, his sales has literally doubled since when he was in the Ultimate Universe.

There's a literal night and day difference in effort between Marvel and DC when it comes to their minority characters. There's a reason why many black readers have essentially gave up on DC.

And that isn't just what marvel's been doing for a while now? The only difference I see is that marvel finally started hitting it big over the past year, Black Panther is doing pretty damn amazing, with that perfect storm of a hot writer and a good showing in a new movie, and it does look like Miles is still doing well(Though I think saying he's THE Spider-Man is a little disingenuous when Peter is still around in Amazing, and you even have Miguel there too, but the "too many ___ characters" thing is for a different conversation). For every Black Panther, Thor, or Spider-Man there is an Angela, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and Silk. Marvel was already on top, and especially with a get like Star Wars has way more room to experiment. I think DC did honestly did a good try in most cases(some of them were definitely under promoted, probably the worst was Cyborg) and I think it's disingenuous to paint it like they put the least amount of effort and that was that, done.

Also, Midnighter launched out of Grayson after making several appearances, crossed over with Grayson, and featured Suicide Squad, I won't say that's not support.

[classicgmer]

Most of the books under ANAD didn't really interest me all that much so I for one am welcoming a new status quo & books that might be more to my liking.

[JKtheMac]

Most of the books under ANAD didn't really interest me all that much so I for one am welcoming a new status quo & books that might be more to my liking.

But if that is the case you need to check that you are part of a key demographic for them. My interest in the overall Marvel output is down too but as I have said in the past, that can only be a good thing because they shouldn't be aiming books exclusively at late forties white guys like me. Even if Marvel produced no books I like, and that's not likely, I would be happy reading loads of other material that suits my tastes, because Image et al will always have something for me. Although happily many of my favorite books from Marvel are still big sellers and gathering wider audiences so happy days.

Again, look at the volume and variety, this week's output from Marvel has huge. Admittedly a few were last issues, but they produced so many comics, far more than anybody else and probably as many as their three biggest competitors combined. I can't remember the exact count but it was in the low twenties in one week!

P.S. I make it 28 separate titles including all ages titles.

[dragonmp93]

But if that is the case you need to check that you are part of a key demographic for them. My interest in the overall Marvel output is down too but as I have said in the past, that can only be a good thing because they shouldn't be aiming books exclusively at late forties white guys like me. Even if Marvel produced no books I like, and that's not likely, I would be happy reading loads of other material that suits my tastes, because Image et al will always have something for me. Although happily many of my favorite books from Marvel are still big sellers and gathering wider audiences so happy days.

Again, look at the volume and variety, this week's output from Marvel has huge. Admittedly a few were last issues, but they produced so many comics, far more than anybody else and probably as many as their three biggest competitors combined. I can't remember the exact count but it was in the low twenties in one week!

P.S. I make it 28 separate titles including all ages titles.

And people do buy them ?.

[mace11]

For every Black Panther, Thor, or Spider-Man there is an Angela, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and Silk.

Silk is doing ok or well.
In fact it was doing better before secret wars just like star lord and hawkeye.

[leo619]

And that isn't just what marvel's been doing for a while now? The only difference I see is that marvel finally started hitting it big over the past year, Black Panther is doing pretty damn amazing, with that perfect storm of a hot writer and a good showing in a new movie, and it does look like Miles is still doing well(Though I think saying he's THE Spider-Man is a little disingenuous when Peter is still around in Amazing, and you even have Miguel there too, but the "too many ___ characters" thing is for a different conversation). For every Black Panther, Thor, or Spider-Man there is an Angela, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and Silk. Marvel was already on top, and especially with a get like Star Wars has way more room to experiment. I think DC did honestly did a good try in most cases(some of them were definitely under promoted, probably the worst was Cyborg) and I think it's disingenuous to paint it like they put the least amount of effort and that was that, done.

Also, Midnighter launched out of Grayson after making several appearances, crossed over with Grayson, and featured Suicide Squad, I won't say that's not support.

I have to disagree, look at the difference you mentioned with Midnighter, and Black Panther. In order for Midnighter to be on the same level, he should have been featured in Batman, (not grayson) be a major role in their last event, then spawn out on his own with a top tier writer or artist. None of that happened, he was placed in low selling books (currently suicide and grayson are in the low 20's in terms of sales) to make a mini appearance, which barely gives him any eyeview, and than spawn into his own series. It also doesn't help that DC fanbase is like 5x more focused on old school characters and are unwilling to give new characters a chance. Almost every single thread over there is about reverting everything back to the old ways. Make Cyborg a titan, and keep the original 7 all white. Screw Nu Wally, we want wally west. Screw the new Earth 2 series, which has perhaps one of DC's few golden nuggets that they can't capitalize on, Val Zod, which could easily be DC's answer to Miles Morales. Oh no, we need to have the old JSA back. It's ridiculous, and they're killing the industry.

So I won't say that it's all DC's issue, their fanbase literally has a current chokehold on their products. But in comparison to Marvel, there's no way you can say DC is even close to 50% as trying in terms of their minority products. That's insulting.